A new national survey by the Anti-Defamation League
offers disturbing evidence that the militia movement has
continued to grow since the Oklahoma City bombing. The
pattern is not uniform, but militia gains plainly appear to
outweigh losses -- contrary to the widespread expectation
that public shock and revulsion at the bombing might prompt
the militias to disband. The ADL survey also found that many
hard-core militiamen believe that the United States
Government itself conducted the bombing to create an excuse
for further depriving citizens of their constitutional
rights.

In October 1994 the ADL issued a Fact-Finding Report
titled
Armed & Dangerous: Militias Take Aim at the Federal
Government, detailing militia activity in 13 states. The
report sought to alert the American public and the law
enforcement community to the danger posed by these
extremists, many of whom were engaging in paramilitary
training while spreading an incendiary anti-federal
government message laced with conspiracy theories and, in
some places, anti-Semitism.

Six months later. the militia movement came under
intense national scrutiny after the deadly April 19. 1995,
bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, when it
was reported that two suspects in the bombing, Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols, had attended some militia
meetings in Michigan. In addition, prosecutors have charged
that McVeigh was motivated to commit the bombing out of
anger at the federal government for its handling of the
Branch Davidian confrontation in Waco, Texas -- an issue
that has been one of the chief rallying cries of the militia
movement.

A Growing Movement

Continued monitoring by ADL in the months after
publication of the October 1994 report reveals that the
militia movement has grown -- with some of the growth taking
place after the Oklahoma city bombing. In this new survey,
conducted through ADL's regional offices and completed six
weeks after the bombing, militias have been found to be
operating in at least 40 states, with membership reaching
some 15,000. A continued flow of information indicates that
these numbers could rise still higher. While these findings
are not a definitive indication of the militias' future
prospects, they do point to the need for ongoing close
attention to this movement.

In California, more than 30 militias are presently
operating, apparently having benefited from the large amount
of publicity the movement has received in recent weeks.
Other states in which militia activity has increased are
Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, New Hampshire, Missouri and
Arizona. In a few states -- Ohio, Indiana and Colorado, for
example -- activity has declined since the bombing. For some
groups, such as the Northwest Oregon Regional Militia, a
factor in their decline has been the belief that the
government, having engineered the blast, is now poised to
take extreme measures to destroy the militia movement.

Since the militias are mainly located in rural and
small town communities, the burden of monitoring them falls
largely on state and local law enforcement agencies. In the
course of the current ADL survey, it became evident that
many of these agencies -- in large measure for lack of
adequate investigative resources -- have not yet managed to
rise to this task. That job will be made even more difficult
if, as some militias strategists are counseling, the groups
adopt a strategy of organizing into small units designed to
be less susceptible to detection, monitoring and
infiltration by law enforcement. This approach echoes a
strategic concept known as "leaderless resistance" that has
been promoted in recent years by several far-right figures.
including
Tom Metzger of Fallbrook, California, who leads
the
White Aryan Resistance, and
Louis Beam, a former Texas
KKK Grand Dragon who has been "Ambassador-
At-Large" of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations.

Weapons and Conspiracy Fantasies

The most ominous aspect of the militias' program is the
conviction, openly expressed by many of them, that an
impending armed conflict with the federal government
necessitates paramilitary training and the stockpiling of
weapons in preparation for that day of reckoning. According
to the militias' conspiracy view, the federal authorities
are enacting gun control legislation in order to make it
impossible for the people to resist the imposition of a
tyrannical regime or a "one-world" dictatorship. Many
militia supporters believe that the conspiracy involves not
only federal authorities. but also the United Nations,
foreign troops and other sinister forces.

Sometimes mentioned among these sinister forces are
Jews. ADL's first report on militias noted that a number of
militia figures have histories of bigotry. The current
survey confirms that some militia propaganda continues to
exhibit an anti-Semitic strain that could well become more
pervasive among militia groups as a result of the movement's
obsessive conspiracy-mongering .

In this connection, the role of America's leading anti-
Semitic organization,
Liberty Lobby. and its weekly
publication, The Spotlight, merit attention. In April 1995,
ADL revealed that one of the Oklahoma City bombing suspects,
Timothy McVeigh, advertised for sale in The Spotlight a
military-style rocket launcher. On May 28, The New York
Times reported that Terry Nichols, the other bombing
suspect, and his brother James were readers of The
Spotlight. Many of the conspiracy fantasies fueling the
militias were promoted heavily in a September 1994 eight-
page supplement of The Spotlight. The supplement, widely
distributed among militiamen, intoned: "Is America on the
verge of war? Is a 'national emergency' about to be declared
and America placed under martial law? Is America on the
brink of occupation by military troops under United Nations
control?" In addition, the Militia of Montana has been
promoting for sale in its catalog a comprehensive bomb-
making manual entitled The Road Back which was produced by
Liberty Lobby's publishing arm, Noontide Press. The catalog
describes the book as "a plan for the restoration of freedom
when our country has been taken over by its enemies."

Spreading Their Message

The militia movement's continued growth is due -- at
least partly -- to an effective communications network.
Militia organizers have promoted their ideology not only at
militia meetings. but also at gun shows, patriot rallies and
gatherings of various groups with anti-government
"grievances." Some militia firebrands reach their audience
through mail-order videotapes and through computer bulletin
boards and the Internet. Exploiting yet another medium, the
pro-militia American Patriot Fax Network disseminates
material from well-known hate group figures and conspiracy
theorists, including some who proclaim that the government
orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing.

Of course, the fact that the men charged with the
Oklahoma City bombing have had some association with one
militia group does not make the entire movement responsible
for the crime. But even if no further connection is
established between the bombing and the militias, it should
be clear by now that these extremists, particularly those
engaged in paramilitary training, present a serious danger.
The formula they have concocted -- belief in menacing
conspiracies, hatred of the government, and the conviction
that an armed showdown is coming -- is a prescription for
disaster.

For these reasons, the Anti-Defamation League urges the
vigorous enforcement by the states of existing statutes
outlawing specific types of paramilitary training. Many of
these measures, currently on the books of 24 states, were
patterned after a model bill formulated by ADL (see ADL's
recent Law Report, The ADL Anti-Paramilitary Training
Statute: A Response To Domestic Terrorism). The League has
written to the governors of the remaining 26 states, urging
them to work with their legislatures to adopt such a
statute. In addition, ADL has called for federal legislation
to address the terrorist threat associated with both
international and domestic extremism. We are encouraged at
the rapid progress that appears to be taking place on a
bipartisan basis toward the adoption of a comprehensive anti-
terrorism bill.

The following is a state-by-state summary of militia
activity, supplementing the information contained in our
October 1994 report, Armed & Dangerous.

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